InstaRam

Bet they loved the EFL when we sold Shinnie for 30k to cover Jagielkas wage till May.  Then we were told we couldn't keep him, whilst they were allowed to change their management team, resign Carroll and bring in 4 loans.  Bet they loved em when they were allowed to bring in 5 players at the start of this season as well. 

BRING HIM HOME!

Max Dean is a player to keep an eye on. Signed from Leeds last January, but only got regular starts for MK Dons in October. He's now got 9 goals and 1 assist in his last 14 games (including a goal vs Reading in the FA Cup).

Not sure I subscribe to that squad profile. This is coming from a club in Charlton who find themselves in mid table, so to be honest, I’m not sure why we should be following their model.
For what it’s worth, this is how I’d roughly assess our squad:
Top class players who are clearly capable of stepping up to the Championship: Cashin, Mendez-Laing, Hourihane, Wilson
Good League One players: Nelson, Forsyth, Bird, Nyambe, Collins, Barkhuizen, Wildsmith, Smith, Sibley, Vickers, Embleton, Elder
Poor League One players: Waghorn, Fornah, Washington, Bradley, Thompson, John-Jules
Players not capable (or not ready) at League One level: Rooney, Ward
Note: This is based on our squad from the first half of the season, so I have included Embleton and John-Jules, but not Oduroh.
As you might expect, most of our players fall within the “good” category - which is why we’ve found ourselves in and around the top six. And that’s not a problem - you need enough of those players to create a strong squad depth. 
But I think it’s those players in the top category that are the difference makers in getting top two. They’re naturally hard to come by of course, since they really shouldn’t be playing at this level, so you would never expect too many players in that list. But I do think a couple of additions of that quality would propel the entire team to one that is too good for this league - and that is the level you need to show to achieve automatic promotion.
The trouble for me is, finding top quality players on a budget is hard. And looking at those players in the bottom two lists - there are a lot signed under the current regime. I had a lot of hope for the new recruitment team, but so far they’ve performed very poorly. That needs to change this window.

if it happens and we catch them, we can all live in the knowledge that it was B4 who saw it coming.

This thread has reminded me that we once paid £3m for Florian Jozefzoon.

Sad news.
I wish him all the best.
 

Diagnosed with terminal cancer - says a maximum of 12 months but could be a lot less.....

Ignoring quality of performance and judging players for minutes on the pitch this season against (guessed) wages, you've got to admit our summer signings on the whole haven't been great?
John-Jules, Elder, Ward, Washington and Bradley have got to be towards the bottom of the list. Nelson and Wilson have been the exceptions, with Nyambe, Waghorn and Fornah in the middle of the pack. VIckers excluded due to being a backup keeper.

Bring the lad home!

You forgot Ward..off load him as well

I’ve corrected it for you the bold is warne signings.
 
the bold italic and underlined is Craig Forsyth signings 

600 up for John Brayford. And an excellent player for us.
 

Would it be fair to say that is pretty much Warne’s team - full of his signings? Vickers, Elder, Bradley, Ward, Fornah, Wilson, Nelson, TJJ etc. Only Nyambe didn’t play? I can’t recall really but it’s a little bit of a worry for me because only Nelson and Nyambe, and Wilson at times, look any good. I am a little underwhelmed with his signings so it feels a bit like the pressure is on, in terms of January signings. 
Anyway. I didn’t care about this cup and didn’t go so I can’t really grumble about what was seemingly a half-arsedperformance. 
 

I mean to be fair he’s been flip flopping around formations like mad this season, so there definitely have been lots of tactical changes in there. However, the style of play remains the same - a focus on athleticism over football, with runners preferred to those with technical ability.
Now, whilst I’m well known not to be a fan of this (or Warne himself for that matter), this is fine so long as it delivers results. My concern is that there remain 2 main limitations with this idea of simply “out working” the opposition:
1. You run the risk of becoming “flat track bullies” - able to batter the poorer teams in the league, but come unstuck against those who simply outplay you in possession. We saw this quite clearly last season, and there is some evidence of it this time around too - with the game against Peterborough on Monday a fine example of when we simply can’t compete with an opponent who focuses on passing the ball well. That said, the league is weaker this season so it’s not quite as evident (and it also feels like we’ve dropped more silly points this season compared with last year).
2. This is my main concern - it kind of lends itself to a pattern of starting slowly while players build up fitness, hitting form and going on a massive run mid season, the running out of steam and collapsing at the end. This is exactly what happened last season, and seems to also be pattern with Warne’s teams in general. Our squad depth is better this season, but we are still an aging team overall, so I do still worry this will come to the fore in the coming months. 
The acid test for me will be how we contend with the next couple of months. We have a run of games against quite lowly opposition which we absolutely MUST capitalise on - can we deal with the relentless winter schedule and avoid our annual New Year collapse? We really need to establish ourselves a commanding position at the summit of the table - COYR

31Vickers - 7 
35Nelson - 7
5Bradley - 6.5
6Cashin - 7
2Wilson - 7
8Bird - 7
4Hourihane - 6.5
22Fornah - 6
3Forsyth - 6
20Elder - 6
19John-Jules - 6
7Barkhuizen - 7
11Méndez-Laing - 7.5
9Collins - 7.5
16Thompson - 7
 
RTV

I know we need mainly attacking reinforcement but I'd really like to get Dylan Williams back from Chelsea on loan to cover for Forsyth as I'm not sure Elder is a great alternative although we've not seen much of him so I could be wrong.

Job done agent Rooney 👏

Our central midfield have some serious problems with their pace. Must bring Tommo on to challange them a bit. They can boss this otherwise!
 
Also think NML look a bit off today. Would be a key to turn this around if he kick on from now on.
 
COYR

Our central midfield have some serious problems with their pace. Must bring Tommo on to challange them a bit. They can boss this otherwise!
 
Also think NML look a bit off today. Would be a key to turn this around if he kick on from now on.
 
COYR

Could do with some Thommo dynamism in midfield. They currently look like Peter Reid chugging after Maradonna.

Our central midfield have some serious problems with their pace. Must bring Tommo on to challange them a bit. They can boss this otherwise!
 
Also think NML look a bit off today. Would be a key to turn this around if he kick on from now on.
 
COYR

Would go for Thomson to try and stop their midfield 

COYR!
We’ve not got a point this year yet!

I’m not sure about that, last night for example we had 19 corners and barely won a header from them. Don’t think we get the striker involved in the game enough either.
 
Wigan first half is how I want us to play football, was moving the ball quickly, movement off the ball and creating chances.
Is a great run but don’t think we’ve cracked it by any means, was a similar vibe around the club this time last year and that unravelled.